Simon Frankau's book reviews

Given how much I enjoyed Smiley's People, Caroline bought me this
for my birthday. So, how does a post-Cold-War Le Carré compare?
Pretty well. It's not in the same league as Smiley's People, but it's
far better than The Honorable Schoolboy, even if it is far closer to
the second in content. The majority of the book is an elegy for the
Cold War spy, here in the form of Ted Mundy and his Eastern European
counterpart Sasha. The book plots Mundy's ramshackle life (successful
at nothing much but unrewarding spying career) through to the
disintegration of the old order at the end of the Cold War. That much
is pretty classic Le Carré, rather less dense than his other
work, but made up for with a wonderfully solid portrait of Mundy's
life, successes and failures. The last part, hinted at through-out, is
pure venom at the War on Terror and invasion of Iraq. Sadly, it is
where his anger kicks in that the characters are least convincing, and
the plot least plausible. The ending is not subtle, and slightly
disappointing, but pretty effective at getting his views across.